Why I Allow Pets in My Rental Properties I’m a fan of pets. I like animals in general. In fact, I have a cat with me on my desk right now as I write this. Pets can evoke some pretty strong emotions, both for and against.No matter what your feelings are on pets, should you as a landlord allow pets in your properties? I know landlords that would shout a hearty “Hell No!” back at me to that question. I however tend to see advantages to allowing pets, so I do allow then, but with … [Read more...]
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget
August 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Four Pieces of BAD Advice on Managing Rental Property You Should Forget Every once in a while I come across a blog post or an article or even a video that I think misses the mark so badly that I want to reach through the computer at the person who put it out and ask them “what are you thinking”? Not your usual disagreement or not understanding someone’s point of view, but actually wanting to ask why in the world they give the advice they are giving. I never do mind you. I think … [Read more...]
The Disadvantages of Section 8 Rentals
August 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Disadvantages of Section 8 Rentals It felt like I was walking into a cave. A dark, messy, smelly cave. I looked around at the walls of my Section 8 rental and saw black, only black. The tenants had decided to add some “color” to the décor. But seriously, who paints walls black? And poop? Who leaves dog poop all over the floor? And trash? How can a family of four leave two, not one, but two dumpsters worth of trash? I started calculating the cost of priming and repainting, carpet … [Read more...]
Owning Rental Property Without Managing Tenants: Why I Use Property Managers
July 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Owning Rental Property Without Managing Tenants: Why I Use Property ManagersA few weeks ago, David, a co-worker of mine, got on the topic of investing in rental properties. After what seemed like 20 minutes, I found out the following about David:He owned a 4-plex ten years ago. He lost a lot of money. He hated dealing with tenants. He will never buy an investment property again. What I deciphered from his story was that he took on too much. He handled every aspect of his rental business … [Read more...]
Importance of Real Estate Maintenance Funds
May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Importance of Real Estate Maintenance FundsAn amazing run of good luck has come to an end. Despite owning a number of older rental properties, I haven’t had to deal with a major repair in almost two years. Recently I had to replace a water heater that failed and take care of several plumbing problems requiring extensive repairs. While I wasn’t happy about it, it wasn’t a problem because I had maintenance reserve funds set aside for such events. Of course, you have reserve funds for your … [Read more...]
Investors Meeting the Multifamily Challenge?
March 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Investors Meeting the Multifamily Challenge?A new generation of multifamily apartment projects is under construction across America. Within the next year or two thousands of brand new properties will be competing toe to toe with single family landlords for tenants. Will investors be up for the challenge? Soaring vacancy rates and rising rents have driven multifamily construction to the highest level in years. The nation’s apartment-vacancy rate in the fourth quarter fell to its lowest … [Read more...]
What Does Real Estate Investing Strategies and Your Lifestyle Effect Your Success
February 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What does your real estate investing strategies have to do with your lifestyle effect your success? “How do I choose a real estate investing strategy”?Regarding a Successful Real Estate Investing Business. One of the questions I am asked most frequently. There’s no doubt that some people are more suited for one type of investing strategy than another. There could be many reasons for this. One might be the type of experience that they already have. A good example would be someone … [Read more...]
Property Management Is There A Quick Fix?
February 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Property Management Is There A Quick Fix?Will the single family investment dream crumble before the realities of managing rental properties? Last year only about a third, 35 percent, of single family rentals made a profit on their rental income. The 3.8 million that lost money or broke even saw their owners’ dreams of a steady, annual rental income evaporate into the ether.Lack of profits isn’t due to lack of effort. Nearly eight out of ten individual investors manage their own … [Read more...]
Why I’m Getting Sued by a Tenant
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Why I’m Getting Sued by a TenantI once read a real estate book that said, “If you’re a real estate investor, it’s not a matter if you’re going to be sued, it’s when you’re going to be sued.” Well, I’ve been in the business about 10 years and I’ve dealt with dozens upon dozens of tenants and sellers and I am now being sued for the first time ever. Here’s why: A few months ago I had a tenant who signed a lease on one of my rental properties. The day the tenant was supposed to … [Read more...]
Bulk Sales of GSE Foreclosures Begin
February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Bulk Sales of GSE Foreclosures BeginThe Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today invited investors interested in purchasing pools of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA foreclosures in the nations hardest-hit metropolitan areas with the requirement they rent them for a period of year to pre-qualify.The new bulk sales program, under discussion since August, will begin with a pilot program where Fannie Mae will offer for sale pools of various types of assets including rental properties, vacant … [Read more...]
How To Use Internet Domain Names To Find Rental Properties
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How To Use Internet Domain Names To Find Rental PropertiesIn this article, you’ll learn how to use inexpensive property search methods that don’t require your physical presence in order to be effective, but which allow you to be at the right place at the right time by using the Internet, a strategic domain name technique and web page linking to find rental properties for [...]Read the full post here... … [Read more...]
Pets in Your Rental Property?
January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pets in Your Rental Property?This has been a subject that has been debated for as long as I can remember; whether or not to allow your tenants to have pets. What I have always found, is that it really doesn’t matter what your policy is. They are probably going to bring them whether or not you actually allow pets.When I bought my first couple of rental properties, I was very clear that I didn’t want pets in my houses. I didn’t want to have to replace the carpet after each tenant because of … [Read more...]
Rental Properties
January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I just read about a couple in South Carolina who had a rental property up for sale. One day, they received a call from one of their neighbors that it appeared someone was inside the property.Nobody was supposed to be in the house at the time so the couple headed over to their place and when they walked in the front door the husband was immediately attacked by a man. The wife pulled out a gun and shot the man and her husband was fine.Apparently, a homeless man had broken into the house and had … [Read more...]
Using Wanted Ads For Rental Properties
January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Using Wanted Ads For Rental PropertiesTry to use Classified Property Wanted Ads to Find Properties.I’ve been pretty successful over the years using classified property wanted ads to find non-advertised properties to buy. Most people call me because they don’t have the time, desire or money to market their properties themselves. Or they don’t want the hassle of listing their property with a [...]How To Use Wanted Ads For Rental Properties is a post from: Real Estate Investing Blog For … [Read more...]
Mini Model: ON Multi-Family Apartment Buildings for Under $200
December 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Mini Model: ON Multi-Family Apartment Buildings for Under $200Most potential tenants make their decision to lease your property within the first 30 seconds of entering the apartment. It is critical to capture their interest and make a great impression as soon as they enter your building. You need an effective leasing strategy to help you do this. A “mini-model” apartment is one of the best leasing strategies you can use to capture your prospect’s attention and make a great first … [Read more...]
Warren Buffett Quotes To follow in my Real Estate Business
December 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Warren Buffett Quotes To follow in my Real Estate BusinessWarren Buffett is a great investor. His track record over multiple decades is just too good to be ignored. As you know, he prefers to purchase companies or stock in companies. Nonetheless I look to leverage greatness any where I can in my business. I found the following three Buffett quotes fit my business model.Quote 1: “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”I am a buy … [Read more...]
Look Both Ways Before You Walk Away from Your Real Estate Investment
December 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Look Both Ways Before You Walk Away from Your Real Estate InvestmentSo many people have walked away from homes that are hopelessly underwater on their real estate investement. With little prospect of recouping their losses, or faced with a difficult personal financial situation, they have made a decision to let the bank foreclose.Prior to 2007 this would have resulted in an income tax liability on the amount of any forgiven debt. Currently the law allows people to walk away from their … [Read more...]
Get a copy of my best selling book ($9.97 on Amazon.com) and an investor training video series FREE!
The Rush to Securitize Single Family Rentals: The Fitch Report Changes the Rules
The Rush to Securitize Single Family Rentals: The Fitch Report Changes the Rules Many of the key points made in last week’s Fitch Ratings Report on REOs to Rentals (See How Ratings Could Dramatically Change the Single Family Rental Business) were not new or surprising. However, seeing them in black and white under the letterhead of one of the most powerful ratings agencies in structured finance changed the rules and probably the timetable for the birth of SFR securities−bonds created by … [Read more...]